Excerpt… Gaza, November, 1323 The good captain had his mast re-stepped and re-rigged four days following the arrival of Johanna and company, after which they were forced to wait two interminable weeks for a favorable wind. His pilgrims, thoroughly bored with the delights of Gaza’s bazaars and women, were impatient to depart. They said so,…
Excerpt… Gaza, October 1323 IN BAGHDAD, AN astute Firas arranged for them to leave with a caravan en route for the port of Gaza. He explained, not unreasonably, that he didn’t want the Baghdadian euphoria over North Wind’s month-long winning streak to erode into ennui and jealousy, which could lead to attempts at retaliation by…
Excerpt… October, 1324, the Holy Land THE CONVULSING WOMAN screamed again. She had a painfully loud and piercing scream which the rock walls of the cave only enhanced. Everyone in earshot cringed. Some cursed. And there were those who looked as if they would as soon murder the woman out of hand than endure another…
Excerpt… On the road to Damascus, late summer, 1323 TEN DAYS OUT of Kerman their caravan was hit by raiders, a group of some thirty or forty men, a number equal to or out-numbering their own troops of guards. They struck in the hour before dawn, just after Rambahadur Raj had sent out scouts to…
Read more He tried frantically to stuff a rope of shining entrails back into his belly.
Excerpt… Between the Hindu Kush and Baghdad, summer, 1323 Johanna was no match for Firas in upper body strength, but he made her practice with a heavy wooden practice sword for a month before he found a small sword in another market which weighed half of what the practice sword did. She discarded the first…
somewhere in the Hindu Kush, summer 1323 They had had considerable difficulty in finding exactly the right village to help them. Many were too small, without enough men. Others weren’t poor enough, having staked out the only arable land in a day’s walk and therefore capable of feeding themselves and their families without resorting to…
Balkh, summer 1323 A scream from the hollow below spun her around. She leapt down the loose scree of the knoll and slid into camp in a scatter of loose gravel, barely managing to stay upright. There she found Hayat and Alma clinging to each other as they watched two young men, ragged and dirty,…
Kabul, spring 1323 “LAPIS LAZULI,” JAUFRE said. “Emeralds,” Shasha said. She hesitated. “Copper? I’ve never seen so much copper for sale in one place as I have here in Kabul.” “Heavy,” Jaufre said. “Depends on how much copper and how far we have to carry it. We should take counsel of Grigori the Tatar.” “One…
Read more “Even the priest has succumbed to our wicked influence.”
Talikan, spring 1323 “How soon will they get here?” the sheik said. The first scout exchanged a glance with his peers. “An hour, my lord,” he said. “Perhaps two. No more.” They stood on the wall next to the great eastern gate, watching Ogodei’s army spill from the hills onto the verdant plain between the…
Kabul, spring, 1323 IT TOOK A month for Jaufre to force himself back into health, or enough so that he could walk some distance mostly without aid. He never sat where he could stand, never stood where he could walk, and if he could only run ten steps before he had to stop, breathing hard,…
Read more “He is sulking,” Shasha said, and stalked from the room.